**Masshole Mommy received four complimentary tickets to visit the Ice Castle and lodging at Loon Mountain in order to facilitate this post. All opinions expressed here are strictly my own and were not influenced in any way**

When I heard there was an ice castle up at Loon Mountain in Lincoln, NH this year, I have to admit that I was intrigued. An ice castle? How was that even possible? So I did what anyone else would do when they want more information about something – I Googled it. I found their website and here’s what it said:

Ice Castle Imagine the wonder of walking through the center of massive glacier-like solid pillars of ice, combined with tunnels, archways and caves. And all of it is built simply out of ice. Truly this will be an experience unlike any other on entire East Coast.

I knew that it was something I needed to check out and last weekend, my family took a drive up to see it for ourselves. If you’re familiar with Loon Mountain at all, the ice castle is set up over by the Adventure Center. If you’re unfamiliar, the Adventure Center is where you can zip line (year round), sign up for Snow Shoe tours and a rock wall is set up inside, but it’s only open seasonally. If you are heading up to see the ice castle and aren’t sure where to go once you get there, don’t worry – it’s very clearly marked.

We were staying at the Mountain Club on Loon, which is the resort at the base of the mountain, so we walked over to the ice castle and this is what we saw was we as we walked up to it.

The tickets are sold inside the Adventure Center and even if you purchased tickets online, you still need to show them inside the Adventure Center. They will give you a wrist band to get inside the castle and it’s good all day, so you can go back at night when the castle is all lit up (or as many times as you’d like).

As soon as we got inside the castle, our jaws dropped. All four of us were in complete amazement at how incredible it was. I couldn’t stop taking pictures:

There was even a snow slide built in to the castle, but only two out of the four of us were brave enough to try it:

We honestly couldn’t have been more impressed with the ice castle. It’s much bigger than it looks on the outside and the castle is filled with giant icicles, ice thrones, pathways and things to see. The pictures I took don’t even do it justice. If you want to know how they the castle was built, you can read about the process here.

If you’re thinking to yourself “I wonder what the walking surface is like inside the castle”, I can tell you that they groom the walking surface with a high speed tiller that crushes and mixes snow and ice. Depending on outside temperatures, this surface can range from powder, to chunky, to a little slushy.

Here’s what you need to know before you visit the ice castle at Loon:

Hours of Operation:

Monday – Friday: 2pm – 10pm
Saturday – Sunday: noon – 10pm

Ticket Prices:

Monday, Family DayGeneral Admission: $8
Children age 4 to 11: $5
Children 3 and under: Free

Tuesday – Thursday:
General Admission: $9
Children age 4 to 11: $6
Children 3 and under: Free

Friday – Sunday, and Holidays:
General Admission: $10
Children age 4 to 11: $7
Children 3 and under: Free

Season Pass: $25

* Senior and Military discount, $2 off General Admission
* Non-Profit discount available for groups of 10+ and Group Discounts for groups of 15+. Tickets must be purchased in advance, contact groupsales@icecastles.com for rates.

You can buy your tickets at the Adventure Center at Loon or online here.

The Ice Castle is located at 60 Loon Mountain Road Lincoln, NH 03521. It is expected to to close around March 1, 2014, so if you’re planning on going to see it, now is the time.

One last piece of advice I can offer – wear boots and a warm coat when you go. It’s chilly out there.

Do they have to re-build this every year I wonder–what happens when it starts warming up (even though we don’t think it will at this point!) I would love to see and walk through this amazing structure but I think I will decline the ice slide. This is the first I’ve ever heard of this place-wonder how that happened!

I work at the Ice Castle – we let it melt. We get the water from a nearby creek and then in the spring when warm weather melts the ice, the water flows into the river (where it would have gone anyway.)
Next winter, we will build it again. If you’re interested in discount tickets we presell them through our website – http://www.icecastles.com Just sign up for the mailing list on the bottom of the page.

this is just way too cool. I am so hitting that slide!
I have always wanted to visit the Ice Hotel just over the river in Quebec. But it’s a bit pricey. Can you imagine actually sleeping on a bed of ice??
I think I’d just take the day tour. ha

Very cool that you got to stay right at the base resort. We went to Loon the one time we were crazy enough to chaperone a middle school ski trip. We stayed at a motel down the road. Being right at the mountain is so much better and more convenient!!

Robin! Great review of the place. They have a similar place here in Utah between Park City and Heber City (which is south of Park City). Park City is where they have a bunch of the Salt Lake Olympic 2002 Stuff. Thanks for the compliment on the watch. I put a link to the store / company on my post cuz so many were interested in the watch. So check it. It is from Charming Charlie. Do you have that store there? The online store is great! Go get one of those watches!! Go!!

That looks COLD . but fun. You all were sliding down ice and we were jumping in the pool. Go figure. What a great place though. Rey would love that.
Since she is full blown into wanting to be an ice skater now — thank you Olympics {grrr..} I’ll ship her your way for a bit! She’d love that!!

I’m from NH and am so sad that I’m not home this winter to head up to Loon! A bunch of buddies posted about this on FB and I was super jealous! I heard there’s going to be a crazy crawl-through ice tunnel for next season. Lincoln in general has some amazing sites and activities throughout the year. Anyone considering a trip to New Hampshire HAS to go to Lincoln!